The present invention relates to a drying apparatus including an accommodating chamber for accommodating things to be dried, or laundry, in which a drying operation of the things to be dried is executed, or a washing operation of the laundry and a drying operation after end of the washing operation are performed in the accommodating chamber.
In recent years, there has been provided a drying apparatus (washing/drying apparatus) for automatically performing washing to drying in an accommodating chamber in which laundry is accommodated. The drying apparatus generally performs a washing operation including a plurality of different processes such as washing, rinsing, and spin-drying, and a drying operation for drying the laundry spin-rinsed in the processes.
Here, in the drying operation, an electric heater or a gas combustion heater has heretofore been used as a heat source. After heating outside air by the electric heater or the combustion heater to obtain high-temperature air, the air is blown into the accommodating chamber in which the laundry has been accommodated to dry the laundry in the accommodating chamber. Moreover, the high-temperature air in the accommodating chamber, by which the laundry has been dried, is exhausted to the outside.
However, when the drying operation is performed using the electric heater, the gas combustion heater or the like, outside air at a low temperature outside the accommodating chamber is used in the high-temperature air blown into the accommodating chamber, and therefore a long time is required until the laundry dries. Therefore, energy consumption for drying the laundry to be dried increases, and there has been a problem that energy costs such as electricity and gas charges soar.
To solve the problem, a drying apparatus has also been developed in which a heating pump constituted of a compressor, a heating coil, a decompression device, and a cooling coil and capable of circulating a heat exchange medium is used at the time of the drying operation, the laundry is dried by the high-temperature air heated by the heating coil, and moisture evaporated from the laundry is coagulated and discarded by the cooling coil (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-99299).
By use of the heating pump, it can be expected that a time required for drying the laundry is shortened and energy efficiency is raised. However, with the use of the heating pump, as compared with heater systems such as an electric heater and a combustion heater, a thermal capacity of a heating pump apparatus is large, and therefore there has been a problem that a long time is required from when the compressor is started and the heating coil warms at a predetermined high temperature until the moisture can be taken from the laundry in the accommodating chamber.
Moreover, in the conventional drying apparatus (washing/drying apparatus), laundry such as clothing accommodated in the accommodating chamber is constituted of fiber, thread or fiber falls from the clothing during the drying, and waste thread floats in drying air. The high-temperature/humidity air containing the waste thread exchanges heat with the cooling coil or the heating coil, and is discharged as the high-temperature air from which the moisture has been removed into the accommodating chamber again. In this case, there has been a problem that the waste thread floating in the high-temperature/humidity air adheres to the cooling coil or the heating coil, and an air passage for circulating the air is closed, that is, clogged. The occurrence of the clogging by the waste thread hampers normal temperature control of the cooling coil or the heating coil, and it becomes difficult to attain a purpose of smoothly performing the drying of the laundry.
To solve the problem, it is considered that a meshed filter is disposed in a circulation passage of the drying air as a method for capturing the waste thread floating in the drying air, but there has been a problem that maintenance works such as replacing and cleaning of the filter are complicated.
Moreover, generation of drying unevenness of the laundry to be dried in a rotating drum raises a problem in the drying apparatus. To solve the problem, the drum has heretofore been rotated to tumble the laundry to be dried therein for a purpose of uniformly drying the laundry to be dried, but the drying of the laundry to be dried accumulated in a place distant from discharge ports of the drying air is retarded. To solve the problem, in Patent Document 1 described above, a duct is formed in a lid member via which the laundry to be dried is taken in/out, and the drying air is discharged into the drum from the duct. However, even in this case, since a discharge direction of the drying air is limited, the drying unevenness is generated by all means.
To solve the conventional technical problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a drying apparatus capable of shortening a drying time of laundry.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a drying apparatus capable of easily capturing waste thread floating in drying air using dew condensation water of an evaporator and capable of avoiding clogging by the waste thread in a radiator, an evaporator or the like beforehand.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a drying apparatus capable of more uniformly drying laundry to be dried accommodated in an accommodating chamber in a rotating drum.